1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a computer-readable computer program, and a device setup system.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As an external electronic device that can be set up by a remote operation of an information processing device such as a personal computer (PC), there is known, e.g., a facsimile machine having a quick-dial function. For example, the facsimile machine and the PC are disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-216380.
When the quick-dial function of the facsimile machine is used, it is needed beforehand to register, in a telephone directory (e.g., a memory) provided in the facsimile machine, respective telephone numbers of destinations (e.g., persons and/or companies) to which facsimile data are transmitted, and respective names of those destinations, such that the telephone numbers and the names are associated with respective quick-dial numbers, i.e., respective abbreviated telephone numbers. However, generally, the facsimile machine cannot employ a display device (e.g., a liquid crystal display) large enough to display the telephone directory, because the employment of the display device leads to increasing the production cost and the overall size. In addition, the facsimile machine cannot employ an operation panel having a sufficiently large number of input keys, and accordingly two or more characters are allocated to each one of the input keys. In the latter case, it is cumbersome to input characters into the facsimile machine. To avoid this problem, it has been practiced to configure the telephone directory (i.e., memory) of the facsimile machine such that the telephone directory can be set up or prepared by a remote operation of an information processing device such as a PC, so that a user can more easily register, through the PC, the telephone numbers, the names, etc. in the telephone directory of the facsimile machine.
Recently, digital multifunctional (MF) devices have been widely used. Each MF device has, in addition to the facsimile function, a copier function, a scanner function, and/or a PC-FAX function wherein a data file that is dealt with by a PC can be directly transmitted as facsimile data. Since the MF device has the many functions, it is needed to store, as a plurality of bathes of setup information, a plurality of batches of control information (e.g., control parameters) used to control each one of the functions. Thus, many digital MF devices are adapted such that respective batches of control information used to control their functions are set up or inputted by a remote operation of an information processing device.
When a digital MF device is set up by a remote operation of an information processing device, it is generally practiced to display, on a display device of the information processing device, a device setting image functioning as a graphical user interface (GUI). As the device setting image functioning as GUI, there is known a tab-using device setting image that includes a first display area for displaying a list of tabs, and a second display area for displaying a tab sheet (i.e., a dialog) corresponding to one of the tabs that is selected using, e.g., a pointing device. Thus, the tab-using device setting image can indicate each one of many dialogs in a comparatively narrow display area of the display device.
In addition, there is known another GUI including a first display area for displaying a list of symbols (e.g., icons) corresponding to respective dialogs that can be displayed, and a second display area for displaying one of the dialogs that corresponds to one of the symbols that is selected with, e.g., a pointing device. In this GUI, the list of symbols are displayed, like a tree, in the first display area and, when one of the symbols is clicked or selected using the pointing device, one dialog corresponding to the selected symbol is displayed in the second display area.